Researchers are not sure that ISIS’s social media propaganda is as important to recruitment as is widely believed. They argue that battlefield success is a better predictor of a group’s ability to recruit, pointing at the expansion of Boko Haram’s ranks as an example. While Western recruits get a lot of media attention, most ISIS fighters are still from the Middle East and North Africa.

In related news, the Project for the 21st Century has an interesting post about the use of social media in the era of ISIS.

Latin America

An Argentine judge has dismissed criminal allegations against the country’s president in the aftermath of the death of a prominent prosecutor investigating the role of the Argentine government in covering up Iranian connections to a 1994 terror attack.

Africa

Activists in the Algerian Sahara are protesting a proposed shale gas project. This is an interesting development because Algeria is so heavily dependent on oil and gas revenues.

Al Shabaab claims to have carried out a mortar attack on the presidential palace.

Asia

Torture continues in the prisons U.S. forces turned over to their Afghan counterparts.

Human Rights

Just Security has a post focusing specifically on the sexual violence U.S. forces committed against prisoners in their custody in the War on Terror, drawing on evidence from the Senate Torture Report.